Brew
A Perfect Cup at Home
This guide, created by Kopplin’s owner Andrew Kopplin, will help you master
the art of brewing the perfect cup. Read more
America's Coolest CoffeeHouses
Kopplin's rated one of America's Coolest Coffeehouses in Travel & Leisure for using local vendors and supporting local community. Read more
Symphony
in a Cup
Local high-end coffee brewers will make you rethink the contents of your mug. Read more
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Good Taste QUarterly
Find out why coffee and espresso taste better drinking from a porcelain
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Coffee on the plant is a fruit much like a cherry with a pit for seeds.
Like cherries coffee develops a red (or in some cases yellow) color as it ripens.
In the harvesting of the cherries being careful to pick only the ripe cherries
is of utmost importance. Unripe cherries leave unpleasant woody, grassy, and
undeveloped off-flavors in the final brew.
Photo
courtesy of El Injerto
Unfortunately it has become all too common practice in the industry to severely
underpay the pickers (which are typically hired seasonally), which leads to the
understandable result of pickers stripping the plant just to increase their poundage.
As an observer once said, “One can’t blame the pickers for just stripping
the plant when their mind is on simply making enough to put food on the table.” When
people are paid to treat the coffee as a commodity, the unfortunate result is
that the people themselves are treated like a commodity.
However, some small farms, recognizing the quality benefits of having a more
skilled harvesting staff, have begun to change the business model to one the
involves training, emphasis on quality over quantity, and most importantly a
focus on paying workers a more decent wage. These steps are small but crucial
to coffee becoming a sustainable product.
